Washington wants to hand Illinois a huge new tax bill. The “cap-and-trade” scheme at the core of the energy tax bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would have an enormous negative impact on the state. Some studies show Illinois could lose as many as 150,000 jobs, and families could lose thousands of dollars in disposable income every year. Congressman Mark Kirk voted yes for this bill despite the huge negative impact on taxpayers in his district and the state of Illinois.

The cap-and-trade scheme is a huge new tax in disguise – a tax on energy that will drive up the price of nearly everything in the country. Take President Obama’s own word for it. He told the San Francisco Chronicle last year: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

That means you pay more. A lot more. Not just for electricity but for gasoline, diesel, anhydrous ammonia, and lots of other things.

And what do we gain environmentally? Basically, nothing. cap-and-trade failed to reduce emissions in Europe. And even if emissions targets were met, climate models show the reductions would have no detectable impact on global average temperatures.

Let’s hope that the bill dies in the Senate. But if it by some chance it is revised and comes back for a vote, U.S. Senate candidate, Congressman Kirk, is encourage to vote on behalf of the tax payers of Illinois, not the special interest groups.